1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image control apparatus configured to simultaneously display a plurality of images on the same screen and a related image control method. More specifically, the present invention relates to an image control apparatus configured to display a plurality of images having respective image qualities determined according to image information and a related image control method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional television receiver capable of simultaneously displaying a plurality of images of different television (TV) programs on the same screen is known. Furthermore, a conventional image quality control apparatus capable of automatically adjusting the image quality of a displayed image according to a viewer's preference is known.
As discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-158941, a conventional image quality control apparatus automatically regulates the image quality of an image to an optimum setting state desired by a viewer according to the type of a TV program (e.g., name of TV program, genre of TV program, broadcasting channel, and broadcasting time slot) to be viewed by the viewer.
A conventional television receiver discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-007685 automatically performs an image control operation optimized independently for each sectioned screen, as one of functions realized by a display apparatus capable of simultaneously displaying a plurality of sectioned screens (sub-screens) on the same screen.
However, the following problems may arise when a conventional image control apparatus performs an image quality adjustment independently for respective images displayed on the same screen.
The simultaneous display of two or more images on the same screen may cause adverse effects on the displayed images if the types of images are different. For example, the following problem arises when the genre of a main image is “movie” and the genre of a sub image is “sports.”
In general, a conventional image quality adjustment includes setting a low luminance for an image of the “movie” genre and a high luminance for an image of the “sports” genre. Therefore, the main image (“movie” image) and the sub image (“sports” image) have a large difference in brightness when displayed on the same screen. As a result, the sub image has an adverse effect on the main image. A user, who is viewing the main image, feels a flicker effect or disturbance.